Made for TV

School was brutal enough in the '70s and '80s without network television acting as perpetual scolds, with their seemingly endless litany of after-school specials. Sporadically and over the past two years, that sense of dread has been resurrected with Cinefamily's Mondo Afterschool Special evenings. Whether they were known as an ABC Afterschool Special, CBS Schoolbreak Special or NBC's Special Treat (!), their plots were ripped from the headlines, driving parents insane and making their kids unwitting recipients of all that collective psychic anguish. Tonight's selection of fearsome footage, presented on ancient 16mm and video, may include screenings of 1981 short The Wave, a primer for showing students fascism's allure; the uplifting 1976 fantasy opus The Amazing Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon (starring Witch Mountaineer Ike Eisenmann); and Blind Sunday (presented by M&M Mars!), in which future soap star Leigh McCloskey plays a boy determined to understand his girlfriend's blindness by stumbling around one Sunday wearing a blindfold. Cinefamily, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Fairfax District; Tues., Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m.; $12. (323) 655-2510, cinefamily.org.
Tue., Sept. 24, 7:30 p.m., 2013